Joshua Redman, Cassandra Wilson, Lionel Loueke, and more
By JON GARELICK | January 5, 2009
DOUBLING UP: Joshua Redman brings his “Double Trio” to Berklee. |
One of the most hotly anticipated concerts of the season will be JOSHUA REDMAN's "Double Trio" concert at Berklee on January 22. It follows the release on January 13 of the double-trio album Compass (Nonesuch), which takes off from the ideas of his first trio album, 2007's Back East (Nonesuch). In the studio, Redman, teamed with bassists Larry Grenadier and Reuben Rogers and drummers Brian Blade and Gregory Hutchinson in a "rotating, and intertwining, pair of trios." For the initial seven-city tour, the plan is for Redman to perform with Grenadier and Hutchinson, then the double trio. The show is a co-presentation by the Regattabar and AEG Live. (The Berklee Performance Center is at 136 Mass Ave, Boston; 617.931.200 or www.ticketmaster.com.)
Speaking of the REGATTABAR (Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett St, Cambridge; 617.395.7757 or www.regattabar.com), the club's winter line-up features two of jazz's most important jazz singers in quick succession, following the release last year of superb albums on Blue Note. Cassandra Wilson, whose Loverly came out in September, is at the R-Bar for four shows over the weekend of February 6 and 7; Patricia Barber, who released The Cole Porter Mix in September, is in the following Tuesday, February 11. Also at the R-Bar: exciting young Benin guitarist Lionel Loueke in his collaborative band Gilfema, with bassist Massimo Biolcati and drummer Ferenc Nemeth, in this case appearing as Gilfema + 2 (January 14), celebrating the release of an album of the same name on Obliqsound. The + 2 on the album are reed players Anat Cohen and John Ellis; at the R-bar it will be Ellis and Joris Roelofs.
Other highlights from the Regattabar winter schedule: terrific young pan-Latin vocalist (i.e., Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese) Eleonora Bianchini (January 15) ; veteran Boston pan-American folk and jazz band Sol y Canto (January 16); the Either/Orchestra celebrating its 23rd birthday (January 17); the Bill Frisell Trio with violinist Eyvind Kang and drummer Rudy Royston (January 20); alto sax monster Kenny Garrett (January 23-24); Israeli pianist Gilad Barkan with flutist Amir Milstein (January 28); Boston jazz-funk organ trio Otis Grove (January 29); drummer Art Hoenig and pianist Jean Michel Pilc's trio, with bassist Hans Glawischnig (February 4); Tunisian oud player and singer Dhafer Youssef (February 10); singer Jack Donahue (February 12); South African singer-songwriter Vusi Mahlasela (February 12); singer Ernestine Anderson (February 14); pianist Kevin Hays (February 17); Nat "King" Cole's "little" brother Freddy (February 25); Cajun-music heroes Beausoleil (February 26); the McCoy Tyner Trio plus special guest TBA (February 27-28); family doctor/jazz pianist Stanley Sagov and his Remembering the Future Band (March 4); Afro-Cuban dance band Obbini Tumbao (March 7); blues singer-songwriter John Hammond Jr. (March 12); the Kenny Barron Trio (March 26-27); violinist/vocalist Jenny Scheinman (March 28); and guitar hero John Scofield's New Orleans-centric Piety Street Band, with pianist Jon Cleary and Meters bassist George Porter Jr. (April 3-4).
Related:
Review: Joshua Redman's Compass, Covering the bottom end - and the bottom line, The talk of the town, More 
- Review: Joshua Redman's Compass
Redman's previous CD, 2007's Back East , was front-loaded with high-concept expectations.
- Covering the bottom end - and the bottom line
The biggest news made by the Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals the past two weekends was that they happened at all.
- The talk of the town
With the Boston Globe Jazz & Blues Festival defunct and no other significant local jazz fest in sight, the Beantown Jazz Festival has been stepping up to fill the void.
- All them 88s!
From free to funky, it sometimes seems like a golden age of jazz piano.
- Cooling it
It's good news that the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, in conjunction with Berklee College of Music, is bringing back jazz as a regular part of its concert season.
- Teachers and students
Several of this fall's promising jazz performances are clustered around the week of October 18. That marks the 40th-anniversary celebration of the jazz-studies program at New England Conservatory, which, created by Gunther Schuller, established NEC as one of the international twin beacons of jazz education in Boston along with Berklee College of Music.
- Trane, Joyce Dee Dee, Sco, and more
The official kickoff to the season begins with the week of activities celebrating the 30th anniversary of the John Coltrane Memorial Concert.
- In all languages
For the past half decade or so, saxophonist Chris Potter has alternately traveled with two of the best bandleaders in jazz, Dave Holland and Dave Douglas.
- Sharp accents
Boston has its own vital scene of pan-American jazz and folk (hey, Mili Bermejo, Alex Alvear, Sergio Brandão, and everyone at Ryles on Wednesday nights!).
- Fathers and son
It must be daunting to have Joshua Redman’s talent.
- Let ’em sing!
Here, in no particular order, are some my favorite things from among the people, CDs, and performances I wrote about this year.
- Less
Topics:
Music Features
, Entertainment, Music, Theo Bleckmann, More
, Entertainment, Music, Theo Bleckmann, Obbini Tumbao, Antonio Sanchez, Joshua Redman, Joshua Redman, Dave Holland, Larry Grenadier, Dan Weiss, Less
